PENNY BROADHURST

It's time for another update, I suppose. The past few weeks have been awash with preparations for Pennfest 2008. I say 2008 as we plan on doing it again next year. I've been rehearsing, promoting, making and distributing posters, buying sweets, writing the next issue of my mini zine, folding and cutting photocopies of the zine and flyers and so on.

Day 1 was very much a success. The weather was nuts...it was boiling hot as the sun poured through the windows when we arrived for soundcheck, hailing as the audience arrived, sweaty and warm in the gig room and snowing as we left to go home after the gig. I didn't get to see all the bands, due to doing the door for a good part of the time, though I saw plenty and heard EVERYTHING and it was all ace. Seeing Brontosaurus Chorus for the first time was a particular highlight. The Seven Inches were fun, as always. The Scaramanga Six were the best I've seen them. And lovely MJ Hibbett played Hey Hey 16K, so I danced about the door area trying not to knock sweets and lollies all over the place. I couldn't have done this without The Fighting Cocks, of course. As for me, I enjoyed my set but am missing more and more the lack of a band. I'm talking to potential musicians this weekend, so we shall see...

Day 2 was a less cohesive, slightly scrappy affair. The Scaramanga Six's van died in scary fashion on the motorway (they were lucky not to be hurt), so they had to pull out. The sound engineer was drunk, the venue was...odd (Charlie Fighting Cocks booked it for its two stages, but it was a bit rough) and lots of people didn't find the second room. There were plenty of folk there, though, and Paul Mosley's set was amazing. More harp and robots, please. I didn't take any photos from the London date, too busy running about in a much more difficult venue for photographic vantage points, but I did take one pic on the way home on Monday, waiting at Goldhawk Road station for a tube to King's Cross.

More pictures over at Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennybofficial/